Same as the other 2 £1.19 Rockstar spinoffs, there’s the usual 32mg/100ml caffeine and so the same “value” figure of 1.34mg/p. How boring. The only thing differentiating this from the others is, of course, the taste.

And what a taste it is. This drink does “tropical” well. It tastes very fruity, without being artificial. It also contains 10% apple juice (from concentrate), which you can’t immediately taste, but definitely adds to the flavour. It’s not so fizzy, which means it feels nice and juicy. It’s not over-sweet or very syrupy either. I haven’t tried this drink warm so I can’t be sure how that would compare, but what I know is that this drink is VERY refreshing chilled. For £1.19, definitely a good deal, especially on a hot day.

Taste: 9/10
Value: 5/10
Experience: 8/10
Overall: 8/10

As you can see from the can, it has the same price as Rockstar Recover. And the same concentration too. So it’s also got the same value rating, 1.34mg/p.

So, the drink itself. It looks like cola. It tastes a bit like cola. Not coke or pepsi quality cola, but more like supermarket diet cola. A slightly fruity aftertaste too. Sadly it also leaves your mouth feeling dry, but if you like cola and the alternative has an unappealing-sounding “mixed-fruit” flavour, you know you could do worse.

Taste: 6/10
Value: 5/10
Experience: 6/10
Overall: 6/10

It’s £1.19 per can, which was the same price as two of the other Rockstar varieties I bought, which seemed nice given its extra claims. Now – to the interesting bit: the taste test! Well, they were definitely right about it not being carbonated. Sadly, they failed to mention that while it is fairly easy on the tongue to begin with and leaves no aftertaste, helpful if your throat is still “recovering” from whatever, it has a horrible too-much-lemon-squash taste in the middle of your drink. Nasty. As far as the refreshment goes, I didn’t really feel anything noticably different from the effects of any other caffeine drink, although once down, my throat felt a bit better I guess. It packs 32mg/100ml into the £1.19 500ml can, resulting in a mid-range caffeine-by-price of 1.34mg/p. A mixed drink.

Taste: 4/10
Value: 5/10
Experience: 7/10
Overall: 5/10

Looks nice and refreshing, doesn’t it? Well surprisingly enough, it is – at least a refreshing break from the “mixed fruit” flavours of other drinks. I’m not quite sure what it tastes of, but it has a sort of citrus tang to it, instead of a sickly sugar-overload taste. Peculiar. It tastes like a slightly medicinal fruit punch.

Taste: 7/10
Value: 2/10
Experience: 5/10
Overall: 5/10

Nothing special. They even have the same colour code as Source. And the horrible colour. So: do they taste any different?

Short answer: No. You could put these pretty much side by side with their Morrisons counterparts and be unable to tell the difference. If anything, they feel ever so slightly less syrupy, but that’s about it.

So, as there’s nothing else really to say, here are the scores. Same as Source, if you were wondering. Even the value is the same; same price and concentration.

Taste (regular): 6/10
Taste (sugar free): 3/10
Value: 7/10
Experience: 5/10
Overall (regular): 6/10
Overall (sugar-free): 4/10

Well, despite my initial beliefs that a cheap lucozade tie-in could only be a bad thing, I was surprised as I realised that the flavour was “Lemon Zing”, which actually sounded quite nice, especially as the drink marketed itself as something to wake you up in the morning. It also boasted about having a relatively low number of calories unlike the original Lucozade brands, which is another point that differentiates it from most energy drinks.

Pouring it out, it was nice to see that the drink is fizzy but transparent, and does in fact, taste exactly like regular diet lemonade. That’s pretty much all that there is to be said about that really. It is just like lemonade.

Of course, the brand tie-in comes at a price. The drink does pack caffeine at 32mg/100ml, but at 89p for each 250ml can, it’s pretty pricey – 0.90mg/p of caffeine, which is second last, beating only Red Bull. However, the drink does have its own selling points of low calories and a popular flavour. Overall, not so bad, but the price is irritating.

Taste: 8/10
Value: 2/10
Experience: 9/10
Overall: 6/10

The only other differences are the deep red colour of both the packaging and liquid – and, of course, the change in taste. Again, you’ll probably want to shake the can lightly or pour the drink into a glass to get the juice and the rest of the drink well mixed. First sip – mmm. It tastes just like a generic summer fruits squash. Next sip: mmm.. wait, that tasted funny. And it gets worse. If you have to drink this, do it slowly. Obviously I can’t judge for everyone, but the sweet, not-quite-berry taste quickly got too much for me, to such an extent that I got rid of the rest of the can. It really was quite nasty. And it takes a while to leave your mouth too. Definitely not worth the £1.45.

Taste: 2/10
Value: 3/10
Experience: 6/10
Overall: 4/10

Obviously the taste is what they’re selling it on, so here goes. “Tropical”. It taste like pretty much any other drink labelled as “Tropical” tastes. That is, vaguely of pineapple. It’s not so bad. If I had a can of Monster Ripper to compare it with this would probably come out slightly worse. This surprised me, as last time I had some of this I seemed to remember it tasting like drain cleaner. Obviously they’ve improved since then. Still, if you don’t like sweet, tangy tastes, you’d probably be better off staying away from this one. It’s probably a good idea to shake the can a bit, lightly, before you start to drink, or pour it out, because otherwise the taste seems to change as you go down the can.

Due to the extra 20p on the price tag, it’s not really a mid-range option any more, so stay away if you just want to wake up or get a buzz. The concentration is the regular 32mg/100ml for this type and as such you get a rather low 110mg/£, or 1.10mg for every penny you pay.

Taste:  7/10
Value: 3/10
Experience: 7/10
Overall: 6/10

Bad photography.

So far, so boring. Crack open the can. The drink is yellow, but not the usual nasty energy drink colour. It’s cloudy yellow, a bit like orange squash. Which makes sense, as this flavour of Relentless imitates the taste of a nice, branded fizzy orange drink – and it does it very well. It’s basically Fanta with caffeine. Talking of caffeine, like other 500ml drinks so far, it has a concentration of – you guessed it – 32mg/100ml, and mg per penny of 1.28, the same as Monster or Origin. If you’d prefer a usual orange soda flavour to the tang of Monster, sweetness of Relentless Origin, or “mixed fruit” atrocity of other brands, then you’re in luck, Relentless Inferno pulls it off very well indeed.

Taste: 9/10
Value: 5/10
Experience: 8/10
Overall: 8/10

It comes in a rather flimsy can, but it does the job alright, and the design is pretty nice. There’s a lot of pretentious marketing stuff on the back which appears to compare people drinking Relentless with great artists and poets.

It’s not particularly price-efficient either, at somewhere around £1.25 a can – and it has the 32mg/100ml concentration that I’ve by now come to realise is not just a coincidence, but the mandated maximum concentration by EU law. So, the mg/p ratio is 1.28, exactly the same as Monster’s branded drinks.

The taste is quite sweet, and although the flavour is described as “mixed fruit”, it doesn’t retain any of the budget energy drink oversweetness or aftertaste – there’s actually no aftertaste at all. It’s generally an incredibly pleasant drink to have. After a couple of hours your mouth might feel a bit dry due to the high level of sugar, but otherwise it is probably the best tasting drink, even after trying all the other ones so far.

Taste: 9/10
Value: 5/10
Experience: 8/10
Overall: 8/10